Angelica Bifano is an actress, playwright, and performer.
She graduated from the Civica Accademia d’Arte Drammatica “Nico Pepe” in Udine. Over the years, she has continued to develop her artistic practice through encounters with some of the leading figures of the contemporary performing arts, including Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella, Daria Deflorian and Antonio Tagliarini, and Anatolij Vasil’ev. In the field of dance, she has further trained with Julie Anne Stanzak, Wim Vandekeybus, Marta Bevilacqua and Raffaella Giordano.
In 2016, together with nine fellow Academy graduates, she founded Collettivo L’Amalgama, developing a practice that intertwines contemporary dramaturgy and collective creation. Under the direction of Andrea Collavino, the collective produced Qui e Ora (2019), by Roland Schimmelpfennig, with the support of CSS Teatro Stabile di Innovazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia and Teatro della Pergola in Florence, and Lost in Macondo (2022–2024), a project supported by Il Rossetti – Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. The collective is currently working on its new production, La forza debole, written and directed by Argentine playwright, director and actor Rafael Spregelburd.
In 2018, she moved to Naples. Alongside her work with Collettivo L’Amalgama, she has worked as an actress with prominent directors on the Italian contemporary theatre scene. She collaborated with Davide Iodice on Hospes-itis, written by Fabio Pisano and produced by Teatro di Napoli; with Rosario Sparno on Sogno, produced by Casa del Contemporaneo; and in 2022 joined Emma Dante’s company for Re Chicchinella, in which she plays the Princess, one of the central characters of the production.
During the same period, she began developing her own independent artistic practice. This led to a collaboration with Hilenia De Falco, who has supported and overseen the development of her projects. Over the years, her research has found a home at Casa del Contemporaneo, Associazione Interno 5 and TAN – Teatro Area Nord, where the Family Trilogy was born.
The project includes the productions Mamma son tanto felice and Noi siamo invece, created in collaboration with Giovanni Battista Storti on direction and produced by Interno 5 and Teatro Libero di Palermo. The third chapter of the trilogy, ESSE, marks a new collaboration with playwright and director Rita Frongia.
“I go beyond the making of a performance… I am interested in creating and preserving a space of creative freedom, a place where we can return to reflecting on theatre, on the expression of the body, on silence and its ghosts, and once again question the space and time of scenic action. Each time, it means starting again from the origins, from the principles that govern the stage. This approach allows me to connect with the artists I collaborate with along the way.
The theme of origins runs, directly or indirectly, through my performances as well. The first characters I wrote belong to the past, to my childhood. I questioned and explored them both as a writer and as an actress, trying to create, through writing and rehearsal, the conditions for them to reveal themselves. When that happens, it is always a gift. It is a delicate process that requires time and listening, and it does not coincide with the desire to explain everything. Some things, when left in mystery, retain their full strength and power of attraction. Not everything needs to be brought to light: that is where theatre begins.
For me, the family represents a field of inquiry into human relationships, the place where each person’s character is formed. This is where I began in order to speak about the human being, about its complexities, fragilities and fractures, but also about that tenderness that inhabits each of us and that we sometimes choose to hide.”
